Saturday, August 13, 2011

With the rollout of Union Hall comes not only a convenient place to collect all of your properties, but also finally, the option to collection Brazil properties separately - and thus have more control over when we use the extra stamina and energy we collect.

This IS on a slow rollout. I have seen plenty of people saying they don't have this. I myself don't have it yet either.

Soon we'll be able to use Rob Squad boosts to collect additional cash and consumables when clicking the Collect All button in Union Hall.

You can also ask for and send "Super Shipments" from the Union Hall. When you Ask for all parts and people click your post, it says you will receive "up to one for each of the construction properties you can own (the Chop Shop, Weapons Depot, Armory, & Private Zoo in NYC, the Black Market in Brazil, and the Port in Italy)".

Zynga has another survey for you, this one about the Union Hall. You can go HERE to take the survey.

Personally, I think it was stupid to put out the survey when many of us don't even have the damn feature yet. If Zynga's usual style holds true, we're pretty much screwed until they get around to finishing the rollout next week. We play the game over the weekend, but Zynga doesn't bother to accommodate that.

I didn't realize this, but those few players who have Manhattan instead of New York didn't have access to missions. The problem is several months old, actually. I haven't seen Manhattan, so I'm not sure why it's such a problem for Zynga to give those players a mission bar.

Players who have Manhattan, but wish to be switched to New York to access missions need to request it to Zynga in this Get Satisfaction thread.

Thursday, August 11, 2011

The new mission event has hit the feeds, and this is one that even I'm interested in!
As it says on your new homepage banner about the mission, the grand prize is "limited time secret district."

We know this much:

"Secret Districts are job tiers which will occasionally appear in Brazil for a limited time. While one is available, you'll be able to access it from a "Secret Districts" button on the Job page next to the normal Districts. These new jobs will drop exclusive new loot items, so get started as soon as you can!"

Kinda sounds like these will be an ongoing part of missions now?
I'm off to explore - I'm sure we'll have much more to say on the subject!

Well about 17 hours ago, this layout changed appeared on, we are assuming, everyone's MW homepage. Within 10 minutes it was gone again. So hopefully is here to stay this time. For this post, we will just focus on the Union Hall, where we can collect on all our Properties (at this time it is Brazil, New York, Las Vegas, and Italy) in one module. We will also assume you can upgrade those Properties also in this module but since I'm already fully upgraded that is still a best guess.

Now this is nothing really new, as most everyone has seen this one-stop for collection in their Atlantic City Properties. So the biggest change would be the individual collection of Brazil Properties. Meaning now we can just collect Reals, Energy from our Refinery, and Stamina from our Barracks on an individual basis. There is still a Collect All here too if you want to collect everything in Brazil at once. |Just click the left or right yellow arrows on your Brazil to cycle between the 4 options.

Below is what you will see to Collect Energy from your Brazil Refinery.

Below is what you will see to Collect Stamina from your Brazil Barracks.

There were no changes to the actual Properties Tab in Brazil as it is still only Collect All as the only option. However if you don't activate your Taskmaster position from your Brazil Crew first before using this new module, you will not be collecting 2x the amount. The good news is that I tested it and you can activate Taskmaster, collect your 2x Energy and the Taskmaster is still available for when you want to collect your 2x Stamina. But this is only when using this module and not from Brazil Properties tab.

The Big Heist banner has been gone from my Mafia Wars home page for a few days now, but this morning I couldn't help but notice that it was back in its old spot. What's up with that?

I went and checked the FAQ about the Big Heist, and it hasn't been updated, so I'm not sure why this banner was put back in the game.

Zynga has seemed rather disorganized and lackadaisical recently, and the information flow sure hasn't been there. They haven't even bothered with updating or making new FAQs about features in the game. It seems that when Nate is away, Zynga just doesn't give a crap.

First up is iNeed. iNeed does an inventory scan of what you have and tells you what you need and even shows you the Gain you will get by getting these items. It even breaks it down into different tabs so you know what you are looking for. It also shows you the stuff you do not have and how many you are using and how many you need.

Next up on the list is iCollector. If you are a loot collector, you will really like this tool. This basically does a scan of your inventory and list all the loot that you do not own. It creates a list that is sorted by Item ID,Item Name,Item Stats and if its Giftable. If an item is giftable, then it will be highlighted and show a Giftbox at the right of that line. If you want to add the item to your wishlist, you just need to click on the giftbox(of course your wishlist has to have room).

You can find these bookmarklets and a few more we will review later here

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Watch the video above for yourself ~ here are a few of my notes that I took during the live broadcast:

War loot rollbacks were addressed, Zynga apologized for how it was handled, but doesn't sound like anything has changed. As in, they don't plan on doing anything further about the current situation.

"Secret Districts" part of next mission event?- reward is early access to a secret district that will be released publicly at the end of the event. In Brazil. New jobs, new loot, difficulty to be on par with some of the later districts of Brazil.

Mystery bag loot refresh is coming. This week.

CM said that BK items should have been turned off in MBs.

The new city - it is a city, not a country. It's going to be stylistically different, thematically different, and should be coming out in the next 3 months. "In three months".

I am finding this weekly timer a Supreme pain! It made me burst into song this morning:

Stop! In the name of love
Before you press collect

Baby, baby
I'm aware of where you go
Each time you craft that gun

I watch you send in your points
Knowing your other level will climb

But this time before you press collect
Leaving me alone and hurt

(Think it o-o-ver) After I've been good to ice?
(Think it o-o-ver) After I've been sweet to help?

No one likes to be told how to play... when to ice... when to craft... but this Family Progression is proving to be really challenging.

Our family is on a weekly timer... if you reach silver on the first day... the amount of effort to finish gold is HUGE! There is no way to help the family on a daily basis.... except to collect less.

We didn't realize that the family progress doesn't work like the individual mission progress.

Right out of the starting gate I chose a Brazil Ruby job do do... it blew through Bronze and well into the silver progress... cool... I can just play and play and not care and collect when I want..right?

WRONG

2 ways to screw the pooch... both your own and your pack...

1. If you just keep jobbing or icing and never collect... and you reach gold mastery... you can't collect... not your own points or your family points... now people who have done this are on the leader-board for the family... so we *assume* the family points got counted??? There is no ticker tape of points... so who knows!

2. If you press collect after your family has reached 100% complete in a section... NOTHING will be shown in the bar when you reach the next level! It may have helped you level... but your 1400 or 2100 points won't help your family get more perks.

Soooo you would have to make sure that you didn't finish gold until the family levels in order to have all of your family points count... and still get your individual XP...

Sound confusing? Sure enough!

But you don't get a do over the next day like the first families to get this feature! In order to get the gold level of ices... 1050... that's right... you have to do better then an icing season worth and you still could not help the family? 70,000 experience points in jobs... and not a % closer to a perk... blow the gold collection... either by pressing too early... or continuing to play and have the points auto dumped by the game... and your effort is for naught...

Don't forget, there's another Mafia Wars Live broadcast today at 3:30PM Pacific time. You can watch it right HERE, and I'll post the recorded broadcast along with some notes later this evening. As of just now, the thread for MWL questions on the forums is still open. I just asked when the friggin' family member limit is going to be raised.

Many of you are probably aware of some of the shenanigans surrounding recent boycott attempts. The boycott bug did not die, however, and there have been other, less-publicized (but more credible) boycotts. One took place yesterday I believe, and a 3-day boycott is getting ready to kick off in another group.

Firstly, let me say that I do not plan on taking part in any boycotts. At least, that's not currently in my playbook. As a player who occasionally has the opportunity to provide feedback and conduct testing for Zynga, I feel that I can better make myself heard that way.

That does not mean that I think players shouldn't boycott, it doesn't mean that I disapprove of them doing so, and it definitely doesn't mean that I don't wholeheartedly agree with and support some of their complaints and objectives.

Once you go into the game you will be able to collect you Crescent Dagger:

And get your 2-gift pop up:

And you will see your shiny new badge in your profile:

At the end of this Ice Season you will be able to collect your Grand Prize:

The stakes are upped just a bit with +1 on the previous defense stats for these prizes. I guess they decided not to alternate between a Attack prize one week and a Defense prize the next!

As in Seasons past each badge will cause a small reward to drop in with your other fight loot:

Our family got the new Family Progression mission / feature with a 5ish day timer... the personal goal is to have 1050 ices in the next 4 days and some hours to make gold mastery... does this Ice Season really matter at that point?